ACT's Simon Court

In his role as regulation Minister, David Seymour is moving to simplify regulations for Early Childhood Education Centres by the end of this year. 

This involves a review containing 15 recommendations, which cabinet has accepted. These recommendations concern a vast number of things, from simplifying licensing criteria for pre-schools to lowering qualification requirements for early childhood educators. 

Both of these areas have sparked concern within the sector, with some educators concerned the review is simply a cost cutting exercise that will result in tamariki being put at risk. 

For our weekly catch up Producer Evie spoke to ACT’s Simon Court about the review. 
They also spoke about New Zealand First’s Members Bill aiming to have the biological definition of a woman and man defined in law. 

And finally they discussed a clash between the party and National’s Scott Simpson over an ACC plan to reduce injury for Māori and Pasifika workers. 

After months of hearings, submissions and debate, the Justice Select Committee has released its report into the Treaty Principles Bill, recommending that the bill not proceed. 

The report found that of all submissions, nearly 90% were opposed, around 8% in support and just over 3% were unstated. 

Despite this final damning backlash against the bill, David Seymour and the ACT party maintain that there is a place for the bill in Aotearoa, saying submissions often don’t reflect the majority view of the country. 

For our weekly catch up, Producer Evie spoke to ACT’s Simon Court about the report, and what the ACT party intend to do next. 

They also spoke about the tariffs imposed on trade by Donald Trump last week, and how the government expects them to impact New Zealand. 

Finally, they spoke about an unfolding situation concerning ACT MP and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard. An RNZ investigation late last week found a potential conflict of interest between the minister and his sister who is the executive director of a dairy company. The investigation found that her company had lobbied against the minister's office introducing tougher regulations on baby formula. 

Last week the ACT Party announced that they were going to stand candidates in the local elections for the first time. 

The party is calling for a ‘clean out’ of councils, slating them for failing to make change. The claims have been met with backlash from councillors who say David Seymour and the party don’t understand the work that goes into local government. 

For our weekly catch up Producer Evie spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about what decisions lead to the move, and what the party hopes to achieve in local government. 

They also discussed ACT MP Mark Cameron who made headlines last week for saying National was leaving farmers and rural communities worse off than James Shaw did due to their higher emission reduction promises. 

And finally we also discussed David Seymour failing to inform Education Minister Erica Stanford that a key school lunch provider was going into liquidation.

The government has announced plans to lower the free bowel cancer screening age from 60 to 58. In order to do this, they are scrapping the pilot programme that would have allowed Maori and Pasifika to have free screening from age 50. 

While this opens the programme up for another 120,000 Kiwis, it takes away free screening from a different 100,000 - essentially just shuffling eligibility around. 

Despite bowel cancer rates being lower in Maori than Pakeha the death rates are higher. Some are calling the change institutionalised racism. 

It’s also been called a broken promise, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon promising in his election campaign to match Australia’s free screening age, which stands at 45. 

For our weekly catch up with the ACT party, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Simon Court about the changes - which ACT has praised for its ‘needs not race’ initiative. 

We also spoke about The ACT Party pushing back on calls for new online literacy and numeracy to be scaled back, after principals said they were failing students in poorer communities. 

Along with last week's Labour cabinet reshuffle, which among the changes saw the introduction of a minister for jobs. 

But, they started off by asking Court about the impact the Bowel Cancer screening changes will have on Māori and Pasifika, and whether the party denies that race should be considered when treating the disease.